Page:A C Doyle - The White Company.djvu/27

Rh parchment roll which he held in his hand. The Abbot, from his point of vantage, looked down on the two long lines of faces, placid and sun-browned for the most part, with the large bovine eyes and unlined features which told of their easy, unchanging existence. Then he turned his eager, fiery gaze upon the pale-faced monk who faced him.

'This plaint is thine, as I learn, brother Ambrose,' said he. 'May the holy Benedict, patron of our house, be present this day and aid us in our findings! How many counts are there?'

'Three, most holy father,' the brother answered in a low and quavering voice.

'Have you set them forth according to rule?'

'They are here set down, most holy father, upon a cantle of sheepskin.'

'Let the sheepskin be handed to the chancellor. Bring in brother John, and let him hear the plaints which have been urged against him.'

At this order a lay-brother swung open the door, and two other lay-brothers entered, leading between them a young novice of the order. He was a man of huge stature, dark-eyed and red-headed, with a peculiar half humorous, half defiant expression upon his bold, well-marked features. His cowl was thrown back upon his shoulders, and his gown, unfastened at the top, disclosed a round sinewy neck, ruddy and corded like the bark of the fir. Thick muscular arms, covered with a reddish down, protruded from the wide sleeves of his habit, while his white skirt, looped up upon one side, gave a glimpse of a huge knotty leg, scarred and torn with the scratches of brambles. With a bow to the Abbot, which had in it perhaps more pleasantry than reverence, the novice strode across to the carved which had been set apart for him, and stood silent and erect with bis hand upon the gold bell which was used in the private orisons of the Abbot's own household. His dark eyes glanced rapidly over the assembly, and finally settled with a grim and menacing twinkle upon the face of his accuser.